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Taipei Metropolis council has come beneath hearth after admitting {that a} robotic canine it purchased to assist patrol metropolis streets utilizing surveillance cameras was made by a Chinese language companylinked to the Chinese language navy.Hammer Lee, the deputy mayor of Taiwan’s capital, launched a “new patrol companion” for the administration and restore of pedestrian areas in a put up on Fb on Tuesday.“This robotic, geared up with an optical panoramic survey system, can create 360-degree photographs, precisely find services, and even mechanically report lacking gadgets,” Lee mentioned, noting its capability to “accumulate complete information”.On Wednesday, an opposition councillor, Chien Shu-pei, mentioned she had realized that the robotic had been made by Unitree, a fast-growing robotics startup based mostly within the Chinese language metropolis of Hangzhou.Unitree’s humanoid robots have appeared within the official lunar new 12 months gala and on the current humanoid robotic video games in Beijing, and its founder and CEO, Xingxing Wang, has met China’s chief, Xi Jinping.Earlier this 12 months a US congressional committee mentioned Unitree’s robots had been “twin use” tech, marketed as civilian but additionally utilized in Chinese language navy drills and police operations.Chien mentioned the council’s procurement of a Unitree robotic canine had “crossed the pink line of knowledge and nationwide safety”. “[This] is not any completely different from sending a Chinese language Computer virus into the each day lives of residents in Taipei Metropolis,” Chien wrote on Fb.In a press release, the council’s new works division mentioned it had purchased just one robotic, by way of a subcontractor, as a trial for upkeep inspections, and that whereas it was made by Unitree in China, the digicam system was developed by the Taiwanese contractor Supratech. The assertion mentioned the brand new works division would “prioritise clearing the safety issues earlier than any additional step is taken”.A Unitree robotic mounted with Taiwan-built digicam methods was displayed at a Taipei tech commerce present final 12 months.China’s ruling Communist get together claims Taiwan as Chinese language territory, and is getting ready to annex it, by navy power if obligatory. Within the meantime, it barrages Taiwan with close to each day grey-zone harassment, espionage and cyber-attacks. Taiwan has enacted strict legal guidelines and rules concerning the importation and use of Chinese language expertise and tools.Feedback beneath Chien’s social media put up had been fiercely vital of town authorities. “I may immediately inform that the mannequin is from Unitree. The Taipei Metropolis authorities has zero consciousness on data safety,” mentioned one commenter. One other requested: “Are you gathering information and paving a approach for the PLA to conduct city warfare right here?”.The Taiwanese navy commentator Wang Cheng-ming urged town authorities to be extra cautious about utilizing Chinese language expertise, noting there have been home initiatives in improvement that might be used as a substitute. “Essential” mapping information gathered by the robotic, which couldn’t be obtained via satellite tv for pc or pictures, can be extremely wanted by China’s navy, he added.Taipei’s mayor, Chiang Wan-an, requested by native media about nationwide safety issues over the robotic, mentioned town and central governments can be discussing the “progressive experiment”.
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